Sebi Allows InvIT, REITs To Conduct Virtual Meetings Till December 31, 2022

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has come out with a circular extending the time for Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) to conduct annual meetings of their unitholders and other meetings through video-conferencing and other audio-visual means till the end of December 2022.

“Accordingly, it has been decided to extend the facility to conduct annual meetings of unitholders in terms of Regulation 22(3) of Sebi (REIT) Regulations, 2014 and Regulation 22(3)(a) of Sebi (InvIT) Regulations, 2014 and meetings other than the annual meeting, through VC or OAVM till December 31, 2022,” the Sebi circular said. 

How Will These Virtual Meetings Be Conducted?

Sebi had laid out an exhaustive list of guidelines and rules in the Annexure-I of its 2020 circular about the same. InvIT and managers of the REIT (as per applicability) have to adhere to these guidelines and rules in order to conduct meetings through video-conferencing and other audio-visual means.

Some of those investor-centric guidelines are: 

• The meeting held through video conferencing and other audio-visual means must record transcripts of everything said there, and these transcripts must be kept in the safe custody of the respective investment managers or the InvIT and managers of the REIT (as applicable). The safe custody of these is their responsibility, the circular said.
• Apart from safely keeping the transcript record; these records would also have to be mandatorily uploaded on the respective InvITs or REITs (as applicable) website for public viewing as soon as possible after the unitholder or other meetings are concluded.
• Since an investor of an InvITs or REITs can be located anywhere in the world, time zones will have to be factored in while setting up these virtual meetings. Therefore, InvITs or REITs must try to position their meeting keeping in view the unitholder’s time zone convenience.
• Sebi also said that before the actual date of the unitholder or other meeting, the facility of remote e-voting must be provided, among other facilities.

Incidentally, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) had also month come out with a circular which had granted an extension to Indian companies holding their Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) through video conferencing or other audio-visual means till December 31, 2022.